Star Wars Resistance – “Secrets and Holograms”

Hello there! Welcome to my latest review for Star Wars Resistance. It took me a few weeks to get into the show, but by the end of “The High Tower” I knew that I was in for the long haul and have decided to start writing about it. This post will be focusing on episode 10: “Secrets and Holograms”

Plot summary

Torra Doza goes to see her father, Captain Doza as she is fed up of being kept inside Doza Tower. Despite Torra being an Ace pilot, Doza says that he is protecting her with the pirates getting more dangerous and the First Order being around. He tells her that the restrictions will remain in place until the First Order are gone.

Doza’s droid, 4D-M1N locks her in her room, but she has learned the passcode and escapes the tower, bumping into Kaz (who was trying to break in to continue his spying mission). They go to the market but soon leave after Torra is bombarded with questions relating to how her father is running the station. As they leave, they see the First Order arriving.

The First Order are far worse than any pirate.

Kaz uses Torra having Flight Simulator Squadron as a way to get into Doza tower. Torra invites him in to play and they go to the Ace lounge, where Kaz finds that Jace Rucklin is now working to earn the money for a new racer. Still believing the loss of his last racer was Kaz’s fault, Rucklin vows to get even with him. Meanwhile, Commander Pyre arrives in Doza’s office with 2 stormtroopers. Doza tells Pyre that he is considering the offer of help but wants some more details. Pyre only gives vague answers when asked how many troopers would be stationed on the Colossus and when the troopers will leave.

Torra invites Kaz back to her room, but on the way they run into Doza and Pyre speaking and it is clear that Doza is still reviewing the offer. Doza gives 4D a datapad containing the details of Pyre’s offer and tells her to put it in his office. Torra and Kaz continue bonding in her room but Kaz and BB-8 have to hide when 4D appears. 4D sees BB-8 and goes into intruder mode, Torra manages to deactivate the mode as Kaz sneaks out, while BB-8 leaves too.

Say, how about we get back to the tower? Before the First Order shows up.

Sounds great… but I think we’re too late.

BB-8 manages to open the door to Doza’s office for Kaz to enter, but they are unaware that Rucklin has seen them. Rucklin runs to Doza, who is bidding farewell to Pyre, but Doza stops him speaking until the troopers are gone. Kaz finds the datapad and downloads the information, but by the time the download is complete, Doza and Rucklin are already on their way up in the lift into the office. Kaz hides in the closet just before the lift opens, finding an Imperial officer’s uniform in there. Not finding anyone in the office (Doza stops Rucklin checking in the closet), Doza sends Rucklin away but just before he can open the closet Torra arrives to inform him the Aces want to speak with him. Both Dozas leave together, but not before Torra shoots a glance to the closet.

While trying to avoid the security droids on his way out of the tower, Kaz is surprised by Torra, who agrees to sneak him out if he explains why he was in her dad’s office. The sneak out via a trash incinerator but Torra has got the days wrong and they are lucky to get out alive. Having made it out of the tower, Kaz tries telling Torra that he was in Doza’s office to see how the other half lives. Torra says they know he was a pilot for the New Republic and asks if he is a spy but he laughs this off and says that he left the Republic to become a racer, before going on his way.

Who are you really, Kazuda?

Torra gets back to her room just before Doza arrives to suggest they go for a hover cruise together. Doza leaves her to get ready and the episode ends with Torra alone in her room (other than her pet voorpak, Buggles) asking who Kaz really is.

Review

On the whole I enjoyed this episode. Over recent weeks, the show has linked back to earlier episodes that at the time didn’t seem important, which was done this week with the return of Rucklin. I get the feeling that he will continue to return as a minor antagonist for Kaz, and if he realises that Kaz is working against the First Order then I would not be surprised to see him start to help Pyre. I did feel that perhaps a bit too much time was spent sneaking around and not enough time actually at locations like Tora’s room or the Ace lounge, while I feel that the sequence in the trash incinerator could have been shorter, however I would not be surprised to see the incinerator have a pay-off later in the show.

Have you considered my offer Doza? It won’t last long.

Torra featured relatively prominently on the marketing material (just look at the image used earlier!) so it was nice to see her have a bigger part to play finally and it could be argued that this episode focused more on her than Kaz. Aged just 15, it is understandable that she would be bored and craving excitement and the way she reacted to the near-death experience in the trash incinerator hints at her brashness, so it makes sense that she would develop a friendship with Kaz who, aged 20, is one of the characters most similar to her in age, brashness and interests. I get the feeling that Torra will continue to play a bigger part in the story moving forward so I look forward to seeing how the relationship between the 2 of them develops. Another thing that makes me think she has a much bigger part to play is the use of very gymnastic moves to avoid being seen by Pyre and to avoid the laser in the incinerator, that would appear to be too much extra work for a character who will be a mere bit-part.

It was nice to see Kaz doing some spying once again in this episode and also looking much better doing so, though almost giving himself away with his reaction to finding Doza’s uniform and also his inability to lie convincingly means there is still room for improvement. What I did struggle to figure out in this episode was just how Kaz felt about Torra. With Kaz so intent on his spying mission, there were moments where I couldn’t figure out if Kaz was genuinely enjoying spending time with her or simply using her as his way into and out of Doza Tower – I would imagine the former going by Kaz’s kind personality in past episodes.

BB-8, look at this. It’s an old Imperial uniform, isn’t it? Doza used to be in the Empire! And now he’s working with the First Order! I knew he was shady, but this… this is bad BB… really bad.

I really like the reveal of Doza’s past as an Imperial officer as it gives some backstory to him while also explaining why he may be willing to speak with the First Order but reluctant to side with them. I also imagine that Kaz finding this will lead him to suspecting Doza as being in league with the First Order, which I feel is a red herring from the way he has acted around them.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see how the story progresses. There is only so long Doza will be able to keep stalling the First Order and he has been doing that since “The High Tower” and I think that he will start to come under increasing pressure from Pyre and the other First Order officers, while it also appears that he could face issues from the Aces and the general populace of the Colossus, while I think the Resistance will also start to take more interest if Kaz tells them he thinks Doza is involved with the First Order. I do wonder how much longer we will be left waiting to see how Synara’s story develops, though, as we have now gone 2 episodes since she helped Kragan’s pirates attack the station and have not seen or heard anything about her in the 2 episodes since “Synara’s Score”.

Captain Doza! I need to talk to you sir. It’s important!

I’m in the midst of showing my guests out, boy!

Is there a problem, captain?

Nothing I can’t handle. Uh… Good day, Commander Pyre.

Next week’s episode “Station Theta-Black” appears to be the last episode before a mid-season break, so I imagine something big will be going down and can’t wait to see what happens!

Moments in canon

Flight Simulator Squadron is shown to involve flying through an asteroid field and avoiding space slugs

As well as a painting done by Sabine Wren, Torra also appears to have a Tauntaun plushie

Pyre once again travels to the Colossus in an Upsilon-class shuttle, the same model used by Kylo Ren in the Sequel Trilogy

What did you think about the episode? Thanks for reading and May the Force be with you…